CJ305 Criminal Evidence Welcome to our Seminar!!! (We will begin shortly) Tonight – Unit 6 (Chapter 8 – Admissions & Confessions)

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 4 Mini Review In Unit 4 we discussed: –Subpoenas –Lay Witnesses –Expert Witnesses –Character Witnesses –Witness Impeachment

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Mini Preview In Unit 6 we will be discussing: –Chapter 8 in your textbook –Admissions –Confessions –Miranda Rule –Exceptions to the Miranda Rule

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 What is an admission? Must an admission be made verbally (spoken out loud)? How does an admission differ from a confession?

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Admissions: –Under the FRE, any statement made by a party is an admission and can be used in evidence against him or her as long as the statement is relevant to the case. –Statements or acts by an accused before trial that are not an acknowledgment of guilt, but DO link the accused with a crime or are in some ways incriminating, are admissions. –The accused need not intend to incriminate himself or herself for the statement or act to be an admission. –An admission may be a simple acknowledgment of being at the crime scene, of being acquainted with the victim of a crime, or even a denial that the defendant was at the scene. –An admission presents no hearsay problem, because admissions are an EXEMPTION from the hearsay rule.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Admissions (cont’d): –Admissions are not limited to verbal statements made by a party—they can be inferred from a person's demeanor, conduct and acts, or even silence. For example: Silence in the face of an accusation when a reasonable person would have responded can be considered an implied or adoptive admission. NOTE: A statement or silence when in police custody or even in the presence of a police officer and under suspicion is not considered an admission, either express, adoptive or implied. This is b/c the law recognizes that such situations are generally enough to cause even a reasonable person to remain silent in the face of an accusation.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Confessions: –A defendant's statement is a confession when the statement is a conscious acknowledgment of guilt by an accused. –As with admissions, confessions must be voluntarily given to be admissible against an accused in a criminal case. NOTE: Under McNabb v. Mallory in fed cases ONLY (DNA to state court cases) the police must not unnecessarily delay any suspect who is in police custody. ANY statement (admission or confession) obtained during the period of unnecessary delay is excluded regardless of whether it was given voluntarily or not.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 What does it mean for a confession to be free and voluntary? What is the test to determine if a confession is made freely and voluntarily?

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Was the confession made freely and voluntarily? –For a confession to have been freely and voluntarily made, the person making the confession must have been in a position to exercise complete mental freedom at the time the confession was made. –The courts have been strict in their interpretation of what will affect this “complete mental freedom” and have ruled that pressure applied to induce a confession will be considered as an interference with mental freedom and cause the confession to be excluded from evidence at trial.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Free and voluntary confessions (cont’d): –At first, courts were primarily concerned with whether the confessor had been subjected to any physical abuse to induce the confession. –Later, the courts came to recognize that other things might affect freedom of the mind, such as psychological pressures upon the accused before or during interrogation. Psychological pressure has been interpreted as any act or statement that may place the accused under a mental strain, such as a threat of violence, a threat of action to be taken against members of the accused's family, extreme deception, promise of reward, or duress.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Free and Voluntary test: –Based on the ‘totality of the circumstances” theory and satisfies two concerns of modern jurisprudence. 1) Unless the confession is so given, there may be a doubt about the fundamental fairness of its use at trial against the accused; and 2)Unless it is given freely and voluntarily, the accused’s right against self-incrimination may be violated. For the defendant to claim that the confession was involuntary, there must be some action by a federal or state agent. Actions by private citizens or self induced compulsion will not lead to the exclusion of the confession unless there is some state statute to the contrary.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 What are the Miranda Rights? When must Miranda Rights be given?

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Miranda requires the police to warn a suspect in custody and subject to interrogation : –The right to remain silent –That anything the suspect says might be used in court against the suspect –That the suspect has the right to have counsel present during questioning –That counsel will be appointed for the suspect if the suspect cannot afford counsel.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 What constitutes “Custody” within the meaning of Miranda? What constitutes “Interrogation: within the meaning of Miranda?

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Custody results when a police officer restrains a person in a manner consistent with a formal arrest, regardless of the situation or the intent of the officer. Interrogation is – the express questioning or –its functional equivalent (that is, any words or actions on the part of the police other than those normally attendant to an arrest) that the police know or should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect. Once the accused invokes his right to counsel, the police cannot further interrogate the suspect, unless the accused himself initiates further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 CUSTODY + QUESTIONING = MIRANDA WARNINGS + WAIVER

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 What are the exceptions to the Miranda Rule?

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Exceptions to the Miranda Rule: –Public Safety Exception – when officers ask questions reasonably prompted by concerns of public safety. –Routine Booking Question Exception – Questions asked to secure the biographical data (name, age, DOB, etc), necessary to complete booking or pre-trial services. –Undercover Police Questioner Exception -- an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a fellow inmate need not give Miranda warnings to an incarcerated suspect before asking questions that may elicit an incriminating response. ploys to mislead a suspect or lull him into a false sense of security that do not rise to the level of compulsion or coercion to speak are not within Miranda's concerns.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 Any evidence that is obtained thru a violation of Miranda is subject to exclusion under the 4 th Amend and Exclusionary Rule provisions. Further, if the suspect invokes his/her right to conusel, further questioning is a violation of the suspects 6 th Amend rights. Under the Fruit of the Poisonous tree Doctrine, confessions given after an unlawful search or seizure may be excluded. Under the Impeachment Exception to the Exclusionary Rule, statements taken in violation of Miranda can be used at trial to impeach the accused the accused.

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 6 – Mini Review Tonight we discussed: –Chapter 8 in your textbook –Admissions –Confessions –Miranda Rule –Exceptions to the Miranda Rule

CJ305 Criminal Evidence - Unit 7 – Mini Preview In Unit 7 we will be discussing: –Chapter 9 in your textbook –The Exclusionary Rule –Searches and Seizures –Stop and Frisk –Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine –Exceptions to the Warrant Requirement ….and of course much, much more…so until next week, I look forward to seeing everyone on the discussion boards!! Thank you!!!